Joining the ends of pipe, tubes or fittings to one another requires considerable care in order to avoid leaks and promote strength of the joint. Various situations, e.g., size of the pipe or fitting, location, number of connections to be made, etc., have resulted in the development of devices, cleaners, reamers, etc. that are useful for a particular situation.
One type of device is suitable for cleaning the threaded ends of large pipe.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,403,353 to Hess discloses a housing which encloses an internal or external brush rotated by a flexible shaft and supplied continuously with cleaning fluid.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,433,448 to True discloses brushes adjustably attached to a rotating disk which may accommodate various sizes of pipe. The disk rotates to generate the brushing motion.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,274,630 to Miliekowski discloses scouring brushes between which cylindrical articles are rotatably interposed.
A number of styles of brushes are also disclosed that are intended for use as scrubbers for the ends of copper tube preparatory to soldering.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,914,063 to Bunke is a cylindrical brush with stepped diameter intended to brush the inside of tubes having any one of a number of diameters.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,549 to Criswell is for a brush comprising two concentric cylinders. The outer cylinder has bristles extending inward from its inner surface and the inner cylinder has bristles extending outwardly from its outer surface so as to define a space between the free ends of the bristles where a tube end may be interposed through a common open end of the cylinders. The supported other end of the cylindrical brushes is configured for detachable engagement with the chuck of an electric hand drill.
Yet another device, incorporated by reference into this specification, is marketed under the tradename PREPSTAR.sup..TM. by Card Industries, Inc., 3207 Washington Ave., St. Louis, Mo. 63103. This device is designed for bench mounting, has a radial cutting blade mounted on a hinge, a reamer, several cylindrical rotatable brushes of different sizes for brushing the insides of tube and a cylindrical brush for rotating the outside of the cut tube.
A workman is often confronted on the job with having to prepare for joining by soldering a large number of tube ends having any one of a number of diameters. The internal and external surface of the tube extending form the end to a distance of about one inch from the end must be thoroughly brushed (descaled) and deburred. None of the devices disclosed in the foregoing paragraphs provide the convenience in terms of portability and accommodation to quickly prepare different size tubes that is provided by the present invention.
In the context of mechanical design, the term "set" screw has two connotations. A set screw may refer to a screw having a special construction which is a screw body having no head but which has an allen socket on one end of the screw for receiving an allen wrench. The second connotation refers to a screw used in a construction to establish the position of one member with respect to the surface of an adjacent member. For such an application, a "set" screw may have any kind of head that is convenient for the application including an allen socket, an allen cap, a flat head, etc. In the context of this application, the term set screw as shown in FIG. 1 is used in the latter connotation.